The Write Stuff is a series of interview profiles conducted by Litseen, where authors give exclusive readings from their work.

Ben Mirov is the author of two books of poetry, Hider Roser and Ghost Machine, and the chapbooks I is to Vorticism, Vortexts, and Collected Ghosts.

When people ask what do you do, you tell them ... ?

I usually tell them I'm a teacher. I don't usually tell them I write poems. I prefer to think of my relationship to poetry as a completely isolated aspect of my life. It feels good to protect it, like I don't need to incorporate being a poet into my identity to make it a thing. Even though it's integral to who I am, maintaining the illusion that my role as a poet is relegated to its own dimension is important to me for reasons I've never fully explored. I just take the impulse as something of value.

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Hilary Olson

The Write Stuff is a series of interview profiles conducted by Litseen, where authors give exclusive readings from their work.

Wonder Dave is a writer and performer from Minnesota living in San Francisco. His work has been featured in literary journals and anthologies such as Divining Divas (Lethe Press) and Aim for the Head (Write Bloody Press). He's been a featured performer at schools, burlesque reviews, poetry slams, science fiction conventions, and bowling alleys across the country. Dave is currently a regular cast member at the monthly Oakland underground variety show Tourettes Without Regrets.

When people ask what do you do, you tell them ... ?
My business card says "Writer, Performer, and Swell Guy." I also tell people I work at a tiny restaurant in SOMA.

What's your biggest struggle -- work or otherwise?
The same thing I think lots of writers struggle with: actually sitting down and writing. If only I could get paid to read whatever I wanted.

If someone said I want to do what you do, what advice would you have for them?
Learn to listen. Read. If you don't read you're going to be a terrible writer.

Do you consider yourself successful?
Yes, I enjoy my life and there are people in it I can be vulnerable with. Also I have more Twitter followers than there are people in the town I grew up in. @TeamWonderDave y'all!

When you're sad/grumpy/pissed off, what YouTube video makes you feel better?
Well because I am a terrible person I'm gonna go with this clip full of swearing Barbie Dolls:

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Joco Fernan

The Write Stuff is a series of interview profiles conducted by Litseen, where authors give exclusive readings from their work.

Oakland native James Cagney is a Cave Canem Fellow and an alumnus of VONA, two leading workshops focusing on the experience of Black writers. He has been widely published.

When people ask what do you do, you tell them ... ?

That I'm a poet and writer. Then, the conversation branches off in one of two directions. They either engage me with stories of their writing or wanting to write or they move on to a different subject.

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Stacey Defouw

The Write Stuff is a series of interview profiles conducted by Litseen, where authors give exclusive readings from their work.

Andrea Kneeland is a person who does things. Her work has appeared in more than 50 literary journals & anthologies, some of which can be found online. She is an editor at Hobart and her first book, the Birds & the Beasts, is forthcoming from The Lit Pub.

When people ask what do you do, you tell them... ?

It depends. When people ask me what I do, I assume that they want to know what the majority of my day is devoted to, and that's not writing. Right now, what I do, mostly, is hang out with my 15 month-old daughter. So I tell them I'm a stay at home mom. Which sounds weird, I think, but that's what I do. When people ask me what I do for fun, I'll mention writing, but I don't get detailed about it.

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Gayle Walsworth

The Write Stuff is a series of interview profiles conducted by Litseen, where authors give exclusive readings from their work.

Kai Carlson-Wee was born and raised on the Minnesota prairie. His poems have appeared in Many Mountains Moving, Linebreak, Forklift Ohio, and Best New Poets 2010. He currently lives in San Francisco, California, where he is a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University.

When people ask what do you do, you tell them... ?

Well, I try not to say I'm a poet. I try to avoid it. I say I'm a skater. Or I say I'm a teacher. Or that I spend my time looking out windows at trees. You know, it's funny, but this question actually makes me very nervous. I mean, I've been writing seriously since I was 19 years old, and I'm 30 years old now, so that's 11 years of writing, but it's only been the last year-and-a-half that I've actually been able to call myself a writer. I don't know why this is. I mean, what makes it so painful for a poet to admit that they spend their days looking at trees? Saying you're a poet has all these romantic connotations, you know, and every time I tell someone I'm a writer I see this film-roll of judgment start playing itself out in their brains. They think you're a poser. A self-ordained dandy. One of those faux intellectual hipsters who hangs around coffee shops quoting from Blake -- "To see the world in a grain of sand" -- that sort of thing. I don't know, perhaps it's a symptom of a larger disease.

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Benjamin Lzicar

The Write Stuff is a series of interview profiles conducted by Litseen, where authors give exclusive readings from their work.

Tatyana Brown is the founding Captain of The Lit Slam, a San Francisco-based, live-audience curated literary show and poetry journal. She ranked 4th at the 2011 Individual World Poetry Slam and has toured North America ever since, facilitating workshops and performing at venues for storytelling and poetry. Her work has appeared on NPR's storytelling show, Snap Judgment, and she holds the distinct honor of winning the longest consecutive string of XXX Haiku Deathmatch Championships at Oakland's Tourettes Without Regrets.

When people ask what do you do, you tell them ... ?

Some or all of the following: I publish an annual poetry journal based on live audience responses to a monthly reading series (which I also curate and produce). I tour all over the country performing my own poetry, teaching writing/performance workshops, and giving talks on subjects ranging from slam as a contemporary American literary tradition to how to tell ethical dirty jokes to practical methods for interrupting and dismantling systemic oppression in real time. I write essays about creativity, privilege, and my experiences as a working class queer progressive artist. I talk about my feelings way more than the average citizen and am perpetually annoyed with my inability to eat gluten. I climb on things I shouldn't. Sometimes I cry in public. I collect bad ideas and silly hats with a near professional level of expertise.

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Austin Peck

The Write Stuff is a series of interview profiles conducted by Litseen, where authors give exclusive readings from their work.

Chris Peck The Town Crier has been recording and performing "hist-hop" and "song-rap" since his first cassette in 1994. His music has been featured on MTV UK, Current TV, the Wall Street Journal.com, and in his own purple videos. Projects include Ancient Baby, a homemade album to be released on vinyl; I Wish the King, his first novel; and LOAN, a band just getting started. Peck teaches guitar in San Rafael and can often be found crying a capella on the corner of 16th & Mission.

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Last year, inspired by the timely coming together of what seemed to be countless writing posses via social media, and with Litquake as an inspiration and a model, a handful of writers decided to throw a festival in Uptown Oakland that turned into 125 authors reading in 25 venues in three hours -- all for free. Appropriately, they called it Beast Crawl ("East Bay" being "beast" in pig latin). The gathering's second annual edition is right around the corner, and to raise funds and generate excitement, the organizers are throwing a hat party on Monday that will feature live music from Wreck This Place and Titan Ups, plus a raffle with prizes donated from local businesses. We thought this was a good chance to check in and see what The Beast Crawl Collective has in store for us this year.

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Robert Houser

The Write Stuff is a series of interview profiles conducted by Litseen, where authors give exclusive readings from their work.

Jon Boilard was born and raised in Western Massachusetts and has been living in Northern California since 1986. More than 50 of his short stories have been published in literary journals in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia. A River Closely Watched is his first novel.

When people ask what do you do, you tell them... ?

These days I tell people I'm a writer. I think I know what you're getting at -- it was a while before I felt I had permission to call myself a writer. Because, of course, the follow-up question is always, "Do you have a book?" And I didn't then. But now I do. David Poindexter of MacAdam/Cage, the publisher of my first novel, and I had a conversation over beers one night, during which he basically asked me what I tell people I do for a living. And I confessed to him that I usually talk about my suit and tie job, and I don't mention the fiction writing thing. "That's bullshit," he said. "You're a fucking writer." It was great to hear a true book man like David say that. I felt like I had permission at that moment.

What's your biggest struggle -- work or otherwise?

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Eileen Marie Roche

The Write Stuff is a series of interview profiles conducted by Litseen, where authors give exclusive readings from their work.

Ginger Murray is the editor-in-chief of Whore! Magazine, author of The Sweet Spot column for this blog, and a performance storyteller. She has appeared just about everywhere and done seemingly everything. An avid lover of bad girls, radical idiots, and thinkers, she delights in wild expressions, stories, and the adventures of sublime chaos. We spoke to her recently about her definition of "success," (not) falling in love with strangers, and the public striptease.

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